The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-29

is very small"
"How is the labor of the prisoners
employed at Anamosa ?''
Largely, think, upon work for the
State. At present building for in
sane convicts is being erected. AtFort
Madison, understand, the contract
system is in vogue, Judge, however,
not with the most satisfactory results.
The reports of that institution show
thatin the ten years contract extending
from 1854 to 1874, when the labor of
the convicts was let for sixty cents a
day, the institution fell short some
81 400 of being self-supporting. I am
| informed that it is not self-supporting
yet. At the present time the labor of
that institution is let for a term of
years to different contractors. Some of
the convicts are employed on contract
to shoe firm at forty-five cents day;
some to manufacturer of agricultural
implements at fifty cents day, and
others to Madison chair manufacturer
at forty-fve cents day.
'The contract labor question is one
Of the great questions of the hour.
One thing is settled, the convicts must
not be idle. How to utilize their labor
so that during their incarceration their
families are not left dependent upon
society and the products of their toll
are not thrown in ruinous competition
upon the market, is the problem. Some
system must be devised that will allow
the convict to participate in the earn
ings of his labor; some system that
will be just to the toiling millions out
side of prison walls. Far sighted men,
like Mr.. Brockway, see the solution of
the prison labor problem in the intro
duction Of what is known as the ''piece
price plan" which has been tried in some
prisons with most satisfactory results.
He claims for it that it disarms the OPP
position of the workingman, best salts
lies the capitalist and his competitors,
and subserves for the State the real
purpose of labor in prisons, viz. : in
come, discipline and the rehabilitation
of the prisoners"
II am deeply impressed" said the
reporter, with the Importance of rem
dering our States prisons as far as pos
sible reformatory in their character.
Did you ascertain what proportion of
the discharged convicts were recon-
mitted ?''
81 did not But of one thing am
convinced, viz: that everything was
being done for the mental and moral
culture of the inmates that can be done
under the present system. 1 think that
both the warden and chaplain would
look with great favor upon the appoint
ment Of a board of prison commission
ers and the introduction into our courts
of the indeterminate sentence. New
York has the old and the new systems
The old sends sixty per cent. back into
society to relapse into life Of crime;
Connecticut about the same. 1 ques-
ton If Iowa makes better showing.
The new system on trial at Elmira,
N. Y, restores eighty per cent. to So
ciety as respectable citizens. Believ-
ing that reformation of the criminal
should be the object of all prison disci-
pline, the Elmira Reformatory is con-
Quoted with this end in view. Educa-
ton, says Charles Dudley Warner, is
carried on there as in some of our high
schools. 1t is carried on especially in
the direction which will go to make a
man good and intelligent citizen-to
make him fit to exercise the right of
suffrage, and to do his duty to the State
with understanding. Ordinary polit-
ical economy, history, English and Amer
lean literature, and branches of that
sort, are taught, and taught thoroughly,
because these young men are not study
ing as some other young men do, to
satisfy some ones pride at home, but
to get out; and they give their minds
to it. They have to pass examinations
and are marked on their reports.
'They have among themselves
weekly newspaper. By the way, 1 re-
commend it as the most decent family
newspaper know in the country. 1t
has nothing in it that would injure a
prisoner, and you cannot afford to send
some of our papers to the prisons.
"The moral training goes hand in
hand with the intellectual. The old
prison system must go. 1t has been
tried and found wanting. While no
sickly sentimentalism should be wasted
upon the criminals, the fact should be
recognized that whatever his crime, he
is still man. Almost every prison in
the older States has its quota of old
men with silver hair and feeble step
who are going down the hill of life.
Terrible has been their crime, terrible
their punishment, the living death of a
life sentence. 1t is justly deserved.
But these men are in the minority, the
great majority areas at Anamosa-
young men. They need that training
provided for in the new reformatory
system that when the days of prison